Jason Sudeikis/Brandi Carlile (10.23.2021)

 Okay, here's my review. As expected, this was unquestionably the best show of the season up to this point. Jason Sudeikis was still in top sketch form after an eight year absence from the show (aside for some small cameos here and there). His energy and performance skill really carried the show. Luckily, they maintained the high energy of last week's show with Rami Malek but produced an episode that was more consistent and less uneven. Naturally, Jason is a cast member I've wanted to see host since he was on during the era I was in high school and college so his cast was the first cast I really felt personally connected to. Still, I don't feel like the show now is too far removed from the end of that era even eight years later in terms of some of the writing and some of the cast overlap. Personally, there weren't a ton of old recurring characters of Jason's I would've rather seen over new original material where Jason just blends in with the current cast and let's them shine. Fortunately, we got a lot more of the latter and the bought back two of Jason's old characters that I really wanted to see done a certain way. They struck a perfect balance between late 00s/early 10s recurring bit nostalgia and new original stuff they could just plug Jason into with the current cast. Speaking of, everyone except Sarah (and the still absent Kate) managed to get a fair amount of airtime tonight. Bowen, Punkie and Aristotle could've made their presence visible a bit more. Kyle came roaring back taking up airtime that could've gone to Sarah or any of the others I just mentioned. Oh well. At least it's still good to see him find new places on the show he can still fit into without Beck there.  Anyway, let's just get right to it.

Ghost Of Bidens' Past - It's not always a great sign when the collective SNL online Fandom is so easily able to predict what the show will do but this time I was quite impressed! On top of the show being fair and giving equal attention to it's newer cast members when an returning alumni is hosting (props on them sticking to just using the Biden impersonators who were actually in the cast, by the way) they actually capped it off at four minutes and sharpened up they're political writing a bit. I'm glad to see the show is smart enough to realize that they have to actually address the differences between VP era Sudeikis Biden and Commander In Cheif era Moffat/Johnson era Biden in order to utilize Sudeikis' Biden at all in a way that works. Nice to see they could work in Chloe as Press Secretary Jen Psaki as well. I was wondering when/if SNL would find a way to parody her considering how much fun they had with two of the last three White House press secretaries. B+

Monologue - As expected, Jason's natural charisma and comedic timing carried this. Good to see Jason effortlessly combine his usual snark with some sincere self reflection. I would say that while I've been watching SNL my whole life several things that happened during Jason's time on the show changed my life since his era was when I started writing these reviews for two different message boards that are no longer around. His last season was when I started writing these reviews for this blog (I figured I might as well puy these on a blog since two projects in my journalism classes I had in college in the time required me create blogs for them) and eventually I started following and interacting with other SNL fans on Twitter which led to me listening to SNL related podcast which led to me being the featured guest on the upcoming SNL Network (neé Stats) podcast this Thursday so, yeah...you could say that monologue really got to me once it sank in. Also, I noticed Jason's sideburns were naturally graying a little bit so is it just me or does it seem like he's always going to look like he's wearing his old Mitt Romney wig? A+

The Science Room III - Given how far apart these sketches have been spaced, I didn't quite think of it as a recurring thing but then I immediately realized how PERFECT Jason would be as the host so kudos to SNL for really thinking outside the box and plugging an old cast member into a new formula that seems tailor made for him. This one seemed a little long compared to the previous ones with Sam Rockwell and Adam Driver, but that's okay since Jason is one of the most likable cast members in the shows' history and he's pretty much the master of the slow burn. This one was really enhanced be bringing out Kyle and Melissa as Mikey and/or Cecilys' parents for Jason to berate. I also liked the Planet Hollywood/Arizona/matter/gravity jokes. B+

Mellen - Wow, well...first off, I've already seen some people say this was too long and I can definitely see that but it actually behooves a sketch like this to be nearly four minutes long when you try to cram in as much sheer material as this did. I mean, I probably would've made some cuts to this too but I'm really not sure which cuts I would've made since a lot of madness like Chloe beating up Gritty in a woman's bathroom, Chris' Kyrie Irving getting a sneak-up Covid shot, Pete's brutal takedown of Jake Paul (in his only appearance in tonight's show strangely enough) and the return of Alex's Connor McGregor actually meeting the challenge of a random audience member all really worked for me. I especially like JAJs' Louis C.K. (wow, I guess he really is "cursed to play cancelled men, huh?) I'm impressed they came up with a specific enough sketch premise that he could get away with using that impression. Plus, Jason really sells the premise. At first, I wasn't quite sure that him selling such a masculine bro-out daytime talk show for men would work with him playing it with Ellen's light, airy energy but that's something only he can pull off and it really helped sell the stark contrast between "why daytime talk shows work BECAUSE they're aimed solely at adult women" and "why things solely marketed to men wouldn't work for any type of talk show". Plus, with Ellen having been "cancelled" for her general mistreatment of guests and staff alike last summer this might as well be what she does on her show for real now anyway. B-

Annie - I was expecting something in the vein of the Home Alone sketch from Kristen Wiigs' episode last season, but once Jasons' character was introduced as someone adding a much darker element to the sketch instead of an impression of a character actually from the original film commenting on an odd plot hole it became clear that wasn't what this was. Even though it's a little sad to see Melissa couldn't quite carve out "meta parodies of 80s/90s family films featuring late '00s/early '10s returning alumni" as a new little niche of hers yet, this sketch still worked for me due to the escalating  implied horror of it. B-

Parent Teacher Conference - It didn't take too long for me to figure out where this was going but once it got to the premise it started to feel like each role was perfectly cast (Jason captivating a woman with his charisma, Ego being hot for teacher, Kyle being the awkward cucked guy on the side line) because the performances were really bringing up the real unambitious premise. This was expertly written to play specificallyto Ego and Jason's hidden strengths (and Kyle's not so hidden strength). Thankfully, they also knew when to end this, too. C+

Jakes' Non-Stick Underwear For Men - Is it just me or did this feel more like a Family Guy bit than anything that really belonged on SNL? Anyway, despite Jason not being in this this was saved by a combination of performances and this being a pretape. Chris and Ego really made this for me. Some assists from Alex and Kyle really helped and kudos to the show for gradually finding more and more ways to substantially use JAJ in non impression roles. C+

Update remains strong. Che and Jost were obviously having a lot of fun this week (especially Che). I was bummed that the story about Will Forte handing out soup to the stand by line turned out to be a hoax but at least Jason was able to bring back the other Forte-less Update character he did that I liked. Even though it took a little while to get going and find its' bite, I loved seeing The Devil return. The Brady/Limbaugh/Prince Andrew/Epstein/QAnon/ScarJo jabs really provided this with the focus it needed to work and made it feel less scattershot (although considering that the previous times The Devil appeared on Update he was ranting about the Catholic Church & Penn State child abuse scandals, the Prince Andrew/Epstein jokes felt a little like an unnecessary retcon). B+

What Up With That XII - Well, this was something I had some mixed feelings about seeing return. For one thing, it was probably the worst offender of 2009-2012 era of SNLs' cookie cutter/copy and paste/Mad Lib style of recurring sketch writing that was one of my biggest pet peeves of that era. Plus, it was an odd use of Jason since he wasn't really the main focus of these but I guess he must've been really quite fond of doing the running man in a red Adidas tracksuit and chain so he'll take any chance he can get. On the other hand, it was interesting getting to see who the random non-speaking celebrity guest cameos were. Oscar Issac and Emily Ratajowski (sp?) were all right here and I liked how they basically just got Nicholas Braun to cameo just so they could reference his Succession role to dance around the fact that Bill Hader was unavailable for a cameo that week. Honestly, having Hader there just to reprise his Lindsey Buckingham role would've been an even bigger waste to me so even though it feels odd to me for SNL to get one Sucession cast member on the show right before a different Succession cast member hosts, I liked what they did in his absence. This sketch made good use of Mikey, Chris, Punkie, Melissa, Ego, Cecily and Bowen (weird that he wouldn't get any airtime until this late in the show though). C+

Declaration of Independence - This seemed like a paper thin premise, but it was definitely saved by the performances. Kudos to Andrew Dismukes for finally getting his big break out moment as a sketch lead considering that before tonight his previous big break moment was his "Brink!" commentary on Update back in May and that seemed a bit unfocused. I'm glad to see Aristotle get some more airtime but the ending with him and Aidy felt a bit too tacked on for me (and it felt like they were setting up an appearance from Andy Samberg as Nic Cage for a sec so that was a little disappointing). C-

An Incoherent Proposal - This whole sketch was pretty much just "Kenan offers Jason varying amounts of money he doesn't have to have sex with Heidi". It may have been the weakest sketch of the night, but there's no denying the performances...made it watchable. C-

Now, for my updated rankings of this season...

1. Jason Sudeikis/Brandi Carlile (10.23.2021)
2. Rami Malek/Young Thug (10.17.2021)
3. Owen Wilson/Kacey Musgraves (10.2.2021)
4. Kim Kardashian-West/Halsey (10.9.2021)

Well, that was a fun way to keep this season right on track! In two weeks time, Kieran Culkin will make his hosting debut. I've seen very little of "Succession" so I'll be going into this blind. I do remember him cameoing in sketches with his brother Macaulay hosting 30 years ago. They both did well (especially considering neither were allowed to use cue cards and had to simply memorize all their lines simply because their dad demanded it for some insane reason) so I'll be hoping for another Rami Malek-level of pleasant surprise. See you then (and don't forget to check me out on this Thursdays' upcoming SNL Network Patron Feedback podcast with Jon Schneider which will be livestreaming at 10pm EST on October 28th).